LINGUIST List 4.274

Wed 14 Apr 1993

Disc: Rude negators

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. benji wald, Re: 4.272 Rude negators
2. Joe Stemberger, Re: 4.272 Rude negators
3. Randy Allen Harris, Rude negators
4. Angus Grieve-Smith, Rude negators

Message 1: Re: 4.272 Rude negators

I'd like to point out that rude negators also have euphemistic versions like
 "like fish" (no doubt related to "fishy", so *"like meat", but also *"like
 tuna": "like a wooly mammoth" has potential) and "my foot", "my eye" (but
 not "my hand", "my thigh", but "my scrotum" has potential. The bridge
 between euphemism and rudeness is explicit in the following early 1960
 exchange with a Harlem teenager. A: Yeah, like Nelly. B: Huh? A:
 Like Nelly. She though shit was a bowlful of jelly. That's why she's
 dead. Any more geographical variants of euphemisms? Bollocks is
 a popular word in Hyde Park Corner, London on Sundays. Bullshit is a
 popular academic word. Seems to mean "undocumented". Not much ruder than
 British "rubbish". I imagine "garbage" would be stronger than "bullshit"
 in American academese. I encourage more examples of equivalents to
 rude negators in other languages, like the Chinese example. Also encourage
 expanded discussion of rudeness -- also like to see if any disagreements
 can emerge on what's rude or not. How uniform a culture is this network?

Message 2: Re: 4.272 Rude negators

A number of years ago, I saw a sociolinguistics article on Australian
English that maintained that Australians can use "PIG'S ARSE" as a
preposed rude negator: "Pig's arse we do" was the example.

The article was about linguistic ways to be harass immigrants. Apparantly,
some businesses had signs in the windows saying things like "We cash
checks". On a second line, there'd be a picture of a pig seen from the
rear, looking over it's shoulder, followed by the words "we do". Native
speakers of Australian English would know that that business did NOT cash
checks. Immigrants would not, and were in for an unpleasant experience.

Can't recall the reference, though.

---joe stemberger

The following contrast exists in (at least) my (West-coast Canadian) dialect.

 Bullshit he did! (= He couldn't have. You're mistaken.)
 Fuck you he did! (= He couldn't have. You're lying.)

Both follow the intonation pattern in Dick Hudson's initial posting.


Randy Allen Harris
South Hanoi Institute of Technology

 In the colloquial speech of upstate New York, at least, there
is an expression, "my ass," equivalent the "bullocks" described by
Dick Hudson: "My ass, he did!" I seem to remember seeing it with other
body parts, and it might also have been used at the end of a sentence
as with "my eye" an expression I've seen in books, e.g. "Priest my
ass!" implying that the person is in no way a priest.
--
 -Angus Grieve-Smith
 bb08179bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu